Call home from Mt. Kinabalu, SE Asia’s highest point

KOTA KINABALU: Trekkers heading up Mount Kinabalu can now call home via two pay phones located 1.2km below the highest point, Low’s Peak.

Located at the Sayat Sayat station, at an altitude of 3,810m, the phones are also the highest such public facility in the country.

“We expect these phones to be popular among tourists because they can call home to tell their family and friends they are calling from the highest point in South-East Asia. That’s a novelty,” said Ruhia Lawis, Telekom Malaysia Bhd's (TM) public relations manager for Sabah.

She said the pay phones at Sayat Sayat, which were installed late last year, had received good response from Mount Kinabalu trekkers.

Calls can be made using coins or prepaid phone cards and the call charges are the same as those made from other pay phones.

Ruhia said TM had in 1997 set up two pay phones at the Laban Rata rest-house, situated 3,270m above sea level.

All pay phones on the mountain are wireless, and use the radio VHF system.

TM engineers designed special booths for the pay phones at Sayat Sayat to protect the electronic equipment from the wind, cold and moisture near the mountain peak.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, who is Kinabalu MP, is scheduled to launch the Sayat Sayat pay phones in a ceremony at the Kinabalu Park headquarters tomorrow.

At the event, Malaysia Book of Record officials are expected to certify that the pay phones at Sayat Sayat are the highest in the country.

Courtesy of The Star